It's The Last Day Of May ...

... and I'm glad the month is over and done with! 

I've had so many migraines this month that I've lost count. So many days have been wasted either suffering though the pain, or recovering afterwards. On top of that, I lost access to my blog for a couple of weeks, so also had the hassle of sorting that out. 

All's well now though, and it hasn't all been doom and gloom. Strictly speaking, the best event was at the end of April but I haven't written about it, so am including it here. We had tickets to go and see Torvill and Dean's final tour, 'Our Last Dance', at Birmingham NEC. 

The tickets were expensive, but I'm glad we forked out the money and went. It's been well reported that Jane Torvill fell on the ice at the NEC, but we were there the day before so watched a faultless show. It was fantastic, especially that we got to see them perform their famous Bolero routine. Checking Facebook the next day I saw that two friends were there with their families at the same time as us. We didn't see them but I worked out from their photos that they were sat in the same block of seats as us, but nearer the front. 

We also went to one of the Bath Festival Literary events - A Talk With Susie Dent (the lexicographer in dictionary corner on Countdown). She has just published her first novel and that's what the talk was all about, with her answering and expanding on questions asked by one of the festival organisers (can't remember his name, sorry), and then a Q&A session with the audience. It was unallocated seating and we weren't too hopeful of a good view, but one of the stewards saw that I was using crutches and moved us forward to the reserved seating in the second row, so we had a great view. She was very interesting to listen to and we both bought a copy of her book - 'Guilty by Definition', which we both got signed. Our plan was that Niall would queue with both books for the signing while I found somewhere to sit, but again the steward invited us to jump the queue and go first, so we were able to meet and talk to Susie. Another lovely event.

Apart from that, I've mostly been at home. My focus has been on obtaining quotes for all the work I'd like done, and then when all the quotes are in, decide what I can afford to do and start the work. I am currently trying to choose bathroom wall tiles, and the tiles for the kitchen ... I'm just looking online to start with but once friend J is back from her holiday we'll visit all the tile stores near us. She's much better than me at picking out suitable tiles!

I've also picked up a few items for the house. One we collected from a charity shop in Westbury, this mahogany table, which fits into the dining end of the room very nicely. The top needs refinishing and I have to find four suitable chairs, but I'm happy with how it fits into the room and it's a good match for all my other mahogany furniture. I've ordered two clothes rails so that I can at least unpack my summer clothes and stop living out of a suitcase, and also a storage rack for the garage so I can start sorting that space out. 

new-to-me dining table, topped with the jigsaw puzzle I'm currently working on

When I went to buy the table, there was also a wheelchair for sale. It was in very good condition and much cheaper than buying a new one, so that came home with us as well. I'm really struggling to walk any distance at all, and when I can walk it takes me ages. I end up exhausted and unable to enjoy whatever we were walking to see/do. I don't intend to use it all the time but it will be used when we go on holiday at the end of July, and also the next time we go to London ... a theatre trip is long overdue!